We caught the 7:45 train and were sipping café crème under the Eiffel Tower by 10:30. The Seine sparkled, the chestnut trees were in bloom, and Paris smelled exactly like fresh baguette and romance. We walked from the Louvre (Mona Lisa smaller than expected, Venus de Milo perfect) across the Tuileries to the Orangerie where Monet's water lilies wrapped around us like a hug.

We had lunch at a tiny Montmartre bistro – steak-frites and a carafe of red while an accordion player outside made us cry into our fries. Quick metro to Sacré-Cœur for the view, then back to Gare St-Lazare with croissants for the train. The pros: you actually get Paris – real Paris – in a day. The cons: it's a long day with trains, but the French rail system is flawless and the memories are priceless. Le Havre itself – King Francis I's 1517 'Harbour of Grace' – was bombed nearly flat in 1944, losing 150 hectares of historic center in a single brutal stroke. What rose from those ashes under architect Auguste Perret is now a UNESCO World Heritage site: a modernist concrete city crowned by the 107-meter Church of Saint Joseph, stark and beautiful as a lighthouse made prayer.